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Blog Thread III : Look Who's Blogging Now
Ladybug:
I could not agree more about the pachinko parlors, I had to leave quickly.
But I had the exact opposite experience with the train system, and I'm definitely not used to using one. But it was probably made simpler by the fact that we were told to get Pasmo cards, which could then be filled up using automats, and it was really simple to just walk in and out wherever and not having to use tickets. But the maps and which direction stuff went in and things like that weren't as complicated as I would have assumed considering the size of the city, I was only surprised once when suddenly the train didn't go any further than some place midway in the route, but I just followed the commuting people into a new train and it worked out okay (it could definitely have turned out "not okay", but the train pretty clearly stated it was heading to where I was going, the only slightly worrying thing was that it was late at night and the trains stop running pretty early, so if I was wrong, I'd have been fucked).
And I felt really lost with the amount of Japanese, even though a lot of things, like names of places and stations were in English. And it was way more confusing than other countries where I didn't speak the language either, simply because I couldn't really recognize words or letters either, so it was just super confusing all the time, but luckily I hung out with someone who's sort of in love with a lot of things Japanese, and she knew some of the signs and words. And some places do use English (or, well, the Latin alphabet), it was just really weird to not even be able to attempt reading or understanding words around me.
But then again, I don't think Japan and I mix very well. Definitely interesting to visit, though, and it sounds like you've had a great time!
Jimor:
The only problem I had with the train system was going back to the airport. There was a set of exit turnstiles that went to the airport, and another that went into the other train company's system. I of course accidentally used the latter and thus was stuck in a system for which I didn't have a proper exit ticket. :-o Fortunately, I just went to a ticket agent, flashed the other company's ticket, and played the confused tourist (which I was).
Ladybug:
We had a bus set up to get from the airport (because at that time we were like 50+ people) and caught a bus from a hotel a short walk from ours to get to the airport (reduced to 16 people), luckily, so we didn't have to deal with that. But I think we did it that way because they had heard that the trains could be a bit confusing. Sounds like a good decision!
pwhodges:
When I was in Tokyo (around 1981), the trouble I had with the subway was that the maps gave the station names in Kanji, but the signs in the corridors gave them in Hiragana and the platform signs were in the Latin alphabet - so I had no way to relate one to the other. I could find the right line by colour, but it was generally guesswork which direction I was going, and a matter of counting stations to identify the destination.
But I really loved being there, and would go again at the drop of a hat.
A Wet Helmet:
I did not ride the trains while I was in Japan, but I did spend far more time than I cared for in a bus. As a not-anything-close-to-small dude, it really kind of sucked. I preferred to take cabs when I could, though they scared the crap out of me. I've had better cab drivers in third world countries.
Another problem with being tall, is that the bar I would frequent with all my new found friends was in a very old building and as such, the doorway to the bathroom was only about six feet tall. This didn't present a problem until I was about five drinks into the evening at which point I would forget to duck and it would catch me right about the eyebrows and knock me on my ass. Then everyone would get a good laugh at the drunk gaijin on the floor. I think I knocked myself over four times one night.
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